For a success in any field, everybody needs som leadership qualities.This blog tells you about How to lead in every field of life. Be a leader in society, business, politics, organizations, clubs and even in your friends!

Tuesday

Nearly all managers inadvertently treat their employees in a manner that leads to less than desirable performance. Several leaders experience difficulty delegating duties. There appears to be the automatic sentiment that the only way to get the job done right is to do it yourself. While accomplishing it yourself may appear to work, it tends to be a breeding ground for ennui, indifference, low motivation, and loss of commitment and zeal. Sharing the work can be a vast motivator, thereby fortifying the organization.

The manner by which managers treat their subordinates is mildly influenced by what they anticipate of them. If a manager's prospects are high, output is likely to be high. If his expectations are low, productivity is expected to be mediocre. It appears there is a law that triggers an employee's performance to rise or fall to synchronize with his manager's expectations.

1. What a boss assumes of a subordinate and how he empowers the subordinate will combine to rapidly influence the subordinate's performance and his career development. What is vital in the interaction of expectations is not what the boss says, but what he does. Apathy and noncommittal treatment convey low expectations and head to inferior execution. Nearly all managers are more successful in communicating low expectations to their subordinates than in conveying high expectations, even though most managers trust exactly the opposite.

2. First-class managers generate high performance expectations that subordinates can accomplish. Underlings will not endeavor for high productivity unless they consider the boss's high expectations pragmatic and attainable. If they are pressed to strive for unattainable goals, they eventually give up trying. Upset, they settle for results that are worse than they are qualified of achieving. The encounter of a large printing corporation demonstrates this. The company discovered that production in fact deteriorated if production quotas were set too high, because the workers simply ceased trying to meet them. "Dangling the carrot just beyond the donkey's reach" is lousy motivational tactic.

3. Inferior managers fail to cultivate high expectations for their minion. Successful managers have greater assurance than ineffective managers in their ability to cultivate the gifts of subordinates. The winning manager's record of success and self-confidence allows credibility to his goals. Thus, subordinates accept his expectations as realistic and exert effort to attain them.

Being a boss is hard work and it's different work from what you did as an individual contributor. Here are some important things you should know if you've just become a boss. For one thing, some people will start treating you like you're a jerk. You have not just become a jerk, but some people will think you have. There are people in the world who think that all bosses are jerks. Some of those people will be in the group that used to be your friends. The only thing you can do is the best job you can so you can give the ones willing to change their minds a reason to do so. That's not all. Some of them will expect special treatment. Some will use their "friendship" with you as a way to lord it over others. It is sad to lose those friends, but you will lose some. Your continuing friends will support you in your new position. It is good to have real friends who stay your friends even when you succeed. You have become a leader whether you want to be one or not. That's because the people who work for you will treat you the way they treat any leader.

They will expect you to set direction and help them understand the importance and purpose of their work. The will expect you expect you to make decisions. They will not tell you things they used to tell you. They will filter a lot of what they do tell you through their self-interest. Since you are going to be a leader anyway, you might as well be a good one. It takes just as much effort to be a good leader as to be an ineffective one, and it's a whole lot more pleasant and rewarding. No matter what you may think, you actually have less power now than you did before. That's because your performance is based on the performance of your team. Their performance is your destiny. That's the bad news. The good news is that you have much more influence than before. Since people are treating you like a leader, it means they will watch what you do and listen to what you say even if it may not always seem that way. You can use what you do and say to influence their behavior and performance in powerful ways. So set upon a course of self-development that includes developing your leadership skills. Start by picking out some role models to emulate, after adjusting for your own style and situation, of course.

Remember that you have two jobs. You must accomplish the mission. And you must care for your people. Be sure to develop the skills that will help you do better at both. Figure out a way to get honest feedback on how you're doing. That's one thing that holds lots of managers back for achieving their full potential. They want to hear the good things about their behavior and performance, but not the bad. You listen to honest feedback for two reasons. First of all, it helps you do better. If you know what needs improvement you can work on it. Second, it helps create an environment of candor for your team. Don't just get feedback from others. Make it habit to critique your own leadership performance. Take a moment or two after every significant action to note the situation, what you intended, what happened and how you might do things better next time. Find some people to talk to about your new role.

Leadership is an apprentice trade. You learn most of it on the job. And you can learn a lot by talking to other leaders about your new role. They can help you with general principles and with specific situations. Making the transition from individual contributor to effective boss usually takes twelve to eighteen months. During that time you'll develop your own style and learn what works best for you. Good bosses are the bedrock of business. Good bosses are the people most responsible for productivity and morale. You can join the club of good bosses, but it won't be easy and it won't be quick. Start by paying attention to the differences that come with being a boss. Work on developing your leadership skills. Be the best boss you can be every day and a better boss the next. Becoming a great boss is worth the effort.

Very few people become successful alone. The majority are members of a power group. That is a group of other success oriented, highly focused, people who help each other achieve greatness.

In this article I will outline seven requirements of a successful power group.

1. Like Minded

The members of the group have to be like minded to the extent that they share similar objectives for the group. In that way they can bring the group energy to focus on their objectives with the minimum distractions.

4. Complimentary

The knowledge, skills and experience of each member of the group should compliment those of the other members. If each person can contribute something that none of the others can, then they can earn their continued membership.

2. Impassioned With Purpose

Each group member should be impassioned with their purpose and with the group purpose. One of the biggest benefits of a power group is that it provides an opportunity to interact with a whole group of people who are far above average in their attitudes, action habits and ambitions.

3. Synergy

It is not enough to have a group whose members are outstanding individuals. It is essential that those individuals combine together in a way as to be greater than the sum of the parts. This is known as synergy and there is a magic about it that brings out in people more than they knew existed.

5. Atmosphere of Encouragement

The group must be appreciative of the individual journeys of each of its members and provide an atmosphere of encouragement. It is only in such a supportive environment that the members will be willing to stretch beyond their current limits and comfort zones.

6. Open Minded

The purpose of the group is not to judge each other but rather to be open minded and investigate possibilities. If you find group members arguing for limitations then perhaps it is time to review the value of their contribution.

7. Meet Regularly

With today's technology it is easy to meet regularly. As well as physical meeting you could meet in video conference calls with free technology such as Skype. You can follow up on group decisions and use email to keep the group apprised of your progress.

How often the group should meet depends on the experience and objectives of the group. I have seen groups that productively meet daily and others who meet as seldom as once per month. It is up to your group to decide what works best for them.

One final point on power groups. The group can be held back by a weak or non-productive member. I suggest that if you find that your group has such a member then you fire them immediately (using all the best people skills of course).

Remember that the group is not a social outing it is a very powerful way to keep all the members focused, productive, and achieving at a great rate than they could without the group. If the group degenerates into a coffee club then it is time to leave and find a new group with the qualities listed above.

If you are not in a power group now then I strongly suggest that you start recruiting as soon as possible.

Over the centuries, philosophers have tried to categorize the very many complex emotions of humanity--no easy task. Philosophers argued emotions are largely influenced by one's time period and culture. In the persuasive process, you want to eliminate negative emotions while constructing positive emotions.

We will focus on a few major, elemental emotions, both positive and negative. You don't want your message to end with negative feelings.

Worry

When your prospect is worried or preoccupied with something occurring now or that is about to happen in the future, your ability to persuade declines. Worry is feeling anxious, uneasy, or concerned about something that may or will happen, or has already happened. I have heard worry referred to as "negative goal setting." Anxiety creates tension--a fear that occupies our thoughts, which, if encouraged will grow and continue to dominate our thoughts.

You can combat worry in your prospects by modifying their anxiety into thoughts of reality. Bring them back to reality by having them realize we can't change many things in life. Stress that most of the things we worry about are those very things we can't change and won't likely ever happen in the first place. Help your prospects substitute their negative mental images with positive ones.

Fear

Fear is anxiety or tension caused by danger, apprehension, harm, pain, or destruction. The possibility of harm can be real or imagined. Fear motivates and moves us away from unpleasant circumstances or potential destruction. Fear persuades us to do many things we might not otherwise do. Out of fear we buy life insurance, air bags, home alarms, and guns.

Fear does not work in every circumstance, however; if we were solely motivated by fear, we would never speed or start smoking. The proper dose of fear is essential in persuasion. If the dose is too small, it will not stimulate action. If the fear is too large, it will trigger resistance and acceptance will decrease For fear to stick and create action and persuasion, it must include the following steps:

1. The image of fear must be unpleasant, such as threat of pain, destruction, or grief.

2. It must be imminent. Your prospects must feel not only that the fearful event is likely to happen, but also that they could be victimized by its occurrence. They must feel vulnerable.

3. You must provide a solution to the fear. Give your prospects a recommended action to suspend or eliminate the fear.

4. Your prospects must believe they are capable of doing what is asked of them and that doing so will work for them.

Anger

Anger is a secondary emotion. A prospect's anger is usually an indicator that something else is askew and/or that he needs and wants attention. You can assist in diminishing his anger by determining the key issue he is upset about. It is also often effective to ask for his help, opinions, or advice. This will usually diffuse his anger or even change his attitude and demeanor completely. In some circumstances, you may want to use anger to make a certain point or to evoke a certain reaction.

Sympathy and Compassion

You can generate action for your cause by creating sympathy for it. When we see others victimized by misfortune that was beyond their control, we feel more sympathetic toward them and more motivated to help them. You've probably seen this technique used by marketers when they show you pictures of starving children, battered women, abandoned animals, and disabled adults.

Jealousy

Jealousy is the pain caused by seeing others' good fortune, not because we want what they have, but because we resent them for having it. The cause of jealousy is the false perception that one's worth lies in the possession of those goods.

Shame

Shame is pain and disrespect felt in connection to regrettable behaviors, experiences, or events. It often involves disgrace or loss of respect for oneself because we feel we have fallen in the eyes of our family, friends, or loved ones. We feel shame because of our vices, our abuses, or any of our perceived failures.

Pity

Pity is empathy we feel toward someone who has been unjustly trespassed against. We often feel pity for others due to death, injury, sickness, calamity, natural disaster, accidents, and so on. We can feel pity for people who are close to us as well as towards people we don't know at all.

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A group of senior executives are finishing up a three-day program at a top leadership training center. They've already filled out evaluations of the courses they took and the instructors. Now they're grading the facilities and meals. Soon they'll be heading back home to see what work has piled up while they were gone.

This scene is played out countless times every day, all across the country. It also tells you a lot about the mistakes companies make with leadership training.

Companies spend millions every year to send top managers to multi-day, off-site leadership programs. At the same they spend only about 7 percent of the training budget on first line supervisors.

But it's those first line supervisors that make most of the difference. Jeff Immelt, current CEO at General Electric, says that when he was a boy, he always knew the name of his father's supervisor, but rarely knew the name of the CEO. That's normal.

First line supervisors determine whether workers are engaged or not. They're the leaders who assure that teams have both high morale and high productivity. Why not spend some training money on them to help them do a better job?

The other thing wrong with spending leadership training money on senior managers is that they're not likely to change much. A manager who's been plying the leadership trade for a couple of decades isn't likely to make a big, effective behavioral change because of a couple of classes.

To make matters worse, most leadership training uses ineffective methods. Companies spend millions every year on classroom-based training that isn't much different from what you'd see if you could go back in time to almost any Medieval university.

In both cases there's one person in front of the room talking to a bunch of other people. Oh sure, today there would be PowerPoint slides and the seats might be more comfortable, but Martin Luther would have no trouble recognizing what's going on.

In this medieval training model, the instructor lays out some basic principles and then works down to specific applications. That might be great for the teacher, but it's not the way that most human beings learn best.

Think about any baby you've been around. There's not a general principle in sight. The baby sees things, touches things, runs into things and tastes things and then turns all those experiences into general principles.

That's how most adults learn, too. The most effective sequence is from specific point or experience to general principle.

What we need is more leadership training that uses methods that are more effective than lecture, or even lecture with PowerPoint and handouts. We need to use more methods that offer opportunities to learn from specific, relevant situations. And we need to use more methods that allow for reflection.

But, just because training is different from our Medieval model doesn't automatically make it effective. There are a lot of programs out there based on the principle that we have to do something special to make learning fun. Other programs grow from the need for trainers and consultants to sell something "new."

That's why you have leadership training that isn't training at all, at least not in leadership. Executives can try outdoor adventure training which can be lots of fun or they can learn leadership by cooking, which probably helps the executive be more helpful at parties. But how do either of these make you a better leader? None of these trendy methods seem to do much about helping you learn leadership, but they're a fun way to spend the training budget.

Here's another really important thing. A lot of great classroom training never finds its way back to the workplace. It never seems to make any difference in what the leader-trainee does.

That's because companies spend their time and money on the training and forget about the learning. That's up to the individual, but companies usually don't even bother to set learning expectations or check to see whether a trainee is using what he or she was taught. They should.

Marshall Goldsmith reviewed how well 86,000 leadership training participants actually learned from the experience. He found that the people who went home, talked about the learning and worked, deliberately to implement new behaviors learned best. But those who just went back home and did no follow-up showed no improvement at all.

The sad fact is that we know how to do good leadership training; we're just not doing it. Here are some things your company should consider.

Spend time and money training your first line supervisors and new managers. Help them put together a self-development plan that will help them learn on the job. You'll get the most bang for your buck that way.

Make sure the leadership training you choose addresses specific skills and uses effective instructional techniques. Set specific learning objectives for everyone you send to training.

Make sure that people who go through training get help and encouragement when they get back on the job. Follow-up to see that they're working to implement what they learned.

At some time or another, organizations and businesses may struggle with employees' negative attitudes. Often, these shifts in attitude can be linked to organization trauma such as downsizing, budget cuts or workload increases, but sometimes negative attitudes evolve with no apparent triggers. Increased complaining, a focus on why things aren't getting done, and a lack of hope that things will get better may characterize negative employees' behavior. Staff negativity can make your whole company feel as though it's in a rut, and negativity is certainly contagious. Negativism can even affect the most positive employees.

There are ways, however, that managers can deal with negative employee behavior and thinking including:

1. Model positive behavior. If management is acting and talking negatively, staff will certainly follow; managers must model positive company behavior. Additionally, take a positive approach by showing confidence in your employees' abilities. Expect a lot from your staff, support them in their efforts, hold them accountable, and be clear in your expectations. Good managers will set standards for their own work and employee relations and meet those standards, setting an example of positive behavior.

2. Acknowledge existing negativity. Ignoring negativity will not make it go away. If you don't acknowledge the negativity, then your employees may view you as being out of touch and not aware of your company's dynamic. Acknowledge the negativity your perceive, and do not try to convince your employees that they shouldn't have those negative feelings. Instead, ask for suggestions regarding what to do about the negativity and come up with solutions together.

3. Identify the positives. Look for small victories and discuss them. Turning a negative company into a positive one is the result of many little actions.

4. Provide positive reinforcement and recognition often. Provide positive recognition as soon as you find out about good performance, and do not couple positive strokes with suggestions for improvement. Those two things must be separated as combining them devalues the recognition.

5. Don't ever go along with the negativity. Regardless of your position in the combination, it can be easy sometimes to participate in the negative talk that is taking place around the water cooler. When faced with negative conversations, consider changing the subject, comment on the negative content ("Hey, let's move on to something more pleasant."), or ask what can be done to remedy the situation that is causing negative feelings.

One of the age-old questions in the sales world is "Are leaders born or made?" Regardless of which school of thought you subscribe to, gifted sales managers often attain their position by demonstrating competence in the sales arena and modeling good sales and good company behavior. High-performing sales organizations apply the best practices, and perceiving, acknowledging and addressing negative employee behavior and attitude is crucial to ensuring success for you and your company.

The most respected leaders in the business world are those who head up corporations with a vision. That vision is a direct result of the leader's ability to be a visionary. Any leader who fails to do this is destined to ride that company right into the ground. The business world today changes too quickly for businesses to have a passive approach. The C-Level executives must provide their organizations with a vision for the future.

I once was associated with an enterprise that was run by a gentleman who came from the operation's side of the business. Over the years he ascended to the top of the organizational chart. His years spent in operations made him exceptional at handling any issues. Anything that arose he was able to take care of. It almost seemed that he was not comfortable unless there was some problem to be attacked. He could juggle 3 or 4 fires simultaneously. Looking back, I am still amazed at this individual's skill in this area.

However, being the leader of a corporation of this size required a different type of person. As terrific as he was at handling issues, he was equally as poor at creating a vision for the future. This company suffered from a corporate culturethat was old and tired. Morale was low which affected productivity. Department heads all had twenty plus years with the organization yet their attitudes were horrific. Nonetheless, years went by before all of this was exposed. This company experienced significant growth for more than a decade using an antiquated vision. Training and technologywere not heavily promoted. Ironically, this company operated in a high tech industry. As you can imagine, the exposure came when the economy made a dramatic shift. All the weaknesses were highly magnified. The flaws of the old system showed how ineffective the entire company was. Sales were reduced to levels not seen in almost two decades.

Where did this leader go wrong? To begin with, he broke the first rule of running a company: don't work in the business, work on the business. All his time was spent attending to matters within the course of the business. There was nobody working on the business. Instead of spending a large portion of his time developing strategies, the day was filled handling one detail after another. Secondly, since the focus was within, a major shift in the marketplace was missed. Naturally, this is not the first executive to fall prey to this. Yet, companies today need leaders who are willing to look out into the future and see what things will look like 5 or 10 years from now. Warren Buffet does this before he buys a company. He figures out where the market will be, not where it is presently.

Being a visionary is something that the business world is looking for. As mentioned, the world of business changes too rapidly. With globalization comes a completely new set of rules. Agility is the key factor. The dinosaurs of the past are being gobbled up almost daily. Take the furniture industry as an example. For decades, the largest manufacturers of furniture we located in North Carolina. However, 10 years ago started the shift in production to China. Today, because of the lower cost of labor, most of the furniture sold in this country is made overseas. A visionary leader would notice something like this. Someone who is spending his or her time working in the business is apt to miss it.

If you are in a leadership position, be a visionary. Determine where you want your organization to be 5, 10, and 20 years down the road. What will your corporate culture look like? Are the people in place to make that happen? Are there factors that could cause a major shift in your industry? What are they? How does technology affect your business? Can it be used to give you a competitive advantage? Is the attitude one that will move your organization to the next level? Finally, what skills do you need to acquire to be able to run a corporation that you are creating? It is important that your abilities go at a rate faster than your company.

Once your vision is set, it is time to 'sell' it to your employees. How to go about doing this is explained in the follow up to this article on our website. Go to http://www.yourrichlifeinc.com/ and click on the 'free download' section. Once logged in, it is under the heading of Visionary. The follow up article is 'Selling Your Vision'.

Have you ever heard of a business where there is no leader or in a more technical term, a boss? Perhaps it is quite inconceivable, since it highly significant in every field that one directs them towards their goal. For instance, if you want to employ a change in system within your business, a leader would have to stand out for you to get through the swamp.

Changing an entire business won't come easily especially if the employees do not have faith with the capacity of the senior who is leading them towards their end. But, doing so is never really that impossible as you have thought it was.

The part played by leadership

If you are a part of an organization, you may have noticed how important it was that the subjects have faith on the capacities of the leaders since they are supposed to be the living models that the subjects must look up to. Actually, in every area where people are involved, there's a great need that someone be responsible enough to lead everyone, because if not every organization would be distinguished as futile for they won't be able to achieve any goal that they have set.

Putting it under the setting of employing sudden change within a business, the subjects or the employees would anticipate for an improved, sensible, effective decisions and regular if not absolute communication from the leader to the employees. During these moments the employees expect more from the leaders such as confidence, support and commitment.

When all things has been said, it all boils down to the trust of the employees to the leader which in the future might bring them better working relationships and would possible strengthen their confidence with each other.

Consequences of poor leadership

Suppose it is inevitable that every leader would possess the essential leadership skills, then you ought to familiarize yourself with the ramifications of this possibility. It is but normal that when the leader is not able to exude any act of leadership that the employees begin to assume that there won't be any positive outcomes with their relationship.

There are certain incidents when the organization gets clouded by distrust and the chance that the employees would act in an illegible manner that they start to be apathetic with the goals of the organization. Feeble leadership would only result to the deficiency of hope which might probably go on for too long and in turn would lead to the organizations inevitable decline.

Leadership then is very significant in every organization because with its absence the whole team under the organization won't be able to function accordingly and they will not be able to operate with a harmonious relationship with one another.

Are you the owner of a small business? A professional in private practice? Or an executive in a small company? If you are any of these and you don't think of yourself as a "business leader," shame on you.

By default, when you have decision-making responsibility and authority, you are the leader.

A recent Entrpreneur Magazine cover text reads "Who are America's future business leaders? You are. So what does it take to succeed? The best leaders combine bold new strategies with time-tested values. Are you up to the task?"

I couldn't have said it better myself. This is the message I continue to communicate. NOW is the time to accept the role. Allow it to challenge and motivate you.

The leader's old role of charismatic superstar has been redefined as a dedicated team leader with a mission. Spectacular business failures such as Enron, Tyco and others, have shown that short term glory is short sighted and will eventually come back to haunt you.

Strategies that effective leaders are using today are:

Down-Time Response: Use down-time to reassess how you want to lead (and where you want to go). Prepare yourself to start the next phase of your business on a stronger foundation.

Grassroots Strength: A leader gathers the strength of the group. Great leaders are able to attract followers within their company, their community and their industry.

Make Tough Decisions: Real business leadership means making tough decisions and getting them carried out. Take a stand and back it up. This requires accurate information and input from trusted sources.

Good of Company First: Builders of strong and profitable businesses make decisions based on long term benefit to their company, not the short term benefits for themselves. This mindset is what's termed a level 5 leader in Jim Collins' book, "Good to Great", published by Harper Business. Jim's book is a great leadership reference even though the research is based on findings from large corporations.

Develop Leadership from Within: Great things come from trial and error. Of course, it's important to try on a small scale to limit damage from failure. Analyze it! Learn from it! Leadership requires courage - the courage of one's convictions. Jim Collins reiterates this in his strategy of getting the right people on board first, then allowing them to learn how to lead through trial and error in their own area of expertise.

Being a great leader requires that you... Be able to communicate with a wide audience. Be willing to make unpopular decisions when necessary. (Take a stand!) Have a plan to make sure your message gets through. Create and implement quality systems and methods that will survive (after you're gone).

Some of these may not be your natural behavior. Business leadership coaching is certainly a great way to develop courage, communication skills and perspective. You can also add these to your capabilities through affiliations and networking. It's more important than ever to have an active network that can be tapped for its expertise, new business potential and reinforcement of leadership skills.

I believe (yes, I'm taking a stand) that by small business leaders coming together to learn from each other, each will gain in their own leadership skills. As a result their business will be the direct beneficiary, becoming stronger and more valuable. Check the current calendar at http://staging.primestrategies.com/calendar for events and programs that bring together small business leaders.

Final words for the leaders of today's...and tomorrow's...strong and profitable businesses: recognize that you are the leader of your business. As such you must make good business decisions, take effective actions and get what you need to follow through.

Mary was the office manager for a large construction company - and with her keen eye for detail, she ran a tight ship. She had the respect and loyalty of both her employer and her staff - but when her boss cajoled Mary into taking on his daughter Bianca for a university work placement, things rapidly began to slide downhill.

Bianca was an only child and the apple of her father's eye. Mary felt that her boss had a blinkered view of Bianca's abilities and privately, she felt that the young woman had a "Princess" attitude.

Fed up with having to remind Bianca to follow office procedure - and aware that the others in her team were being negatively affected by her airs and graces - Mary had turned to me for help.

Clearly Mary felt that she was in a no-win situation. Admitting that she'd never have recruited Bianca in the first place, she also knew that her boss wouldn't take kindly to her complaints about his daughter. But she could also see that she was rapidly beginning to lose credibility with the rest of the team, who expected Mary to sort things out.

I asked Mary what irritated her most about Bianca. "Well," she replied, "she's lazy, she won't do the mundane tasks that we all have to do and she seems to think that we're lucky to have her. But I'm sick and tired of having to nag her to do simple tasks."

It was an educated guess, but I suspected that it was the nagging that was making a bad situation worse. "I can so understand why you feel the need to remind her what needs to be done," I said, "but perhaps she can't understand why you want her to do these tasks. And maybe she's pretty thick skinned and has simply learned throughout her life that if she doesn't do something, in the end someone else will do it for her!"

Mary looked cross. "Well, I hope you're not going to start making excuses for her!"

"Certainly not," I replied. "But understanding what's going on is the first step. Now all we need do is find a way to motivate her. For example, many of us find it easier to get motivated to do something when we understand why it's important for us to do it. Helping her to see the bigger picture in this way will help a little.

"It would also be beneficial if you could organise a mini-appraisal with her. Ask her how she's enjoying the job and what would make it better from her perspective. You could also get her to think about how she's fitting in with the rest of the team. You could also take the opportunity to find out what her career aspirations are - and give her some guidance as to the kind of behaviours she'll need to exhibit if she's going to succeed."

Mary nodded slowly, seeing the sense in my suggestions. But I hadn't quite finished. I had an ace up my sleeve.

I continued, "The key to successful communication is to reinforce the behaviours you want! When Bianca does something right, praise her. When she gets it wrong, make as little fuss as possible. As humans, we like to fit in and be praised - so subconsciously, we choose to do more of what wins us praise and less of what doesn't. All the time that you're nagging at Bianca, she's ignoring what you're saying because it doesn't feel good! Reinforce her positive behaviours and without realising why she's doing it, you'll start to see her attitudes changing."

Mary promised to give it a go - recognising that perhaps she had little other choice. But when we caught up for a coffee and a chat a couple of months later, she was almost evangelical!

"I could never have believed that I could make so much difference in someone else," Mary had told me. "While it felt uncomfortable for me at first - especially as I didn't feel that Bianca actually deserved any praise - I did my best to focus on the behaviours I wanted from her, rather than on those that I didn't want. The results have been almost miraculous. And I knew I'd got it right when Bianca's father - my boss - took me out for lunch week to thank me for teaching his daughter how to be more professional at work.".

Last summer I had the pleasure of taking a trip which included a drive through 19 states in 10 days. It was a considerable amount of driving but a wonderful encounter with history and nostalgia. Each city and town seemed to boast a special person or event that helped shape our country. One thing that really impressed me was the how many times I found myself on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in so many different cities and towns.

There are Martin Luther King Jr Blvds in Dallas, Chicago and Chapel Hill. There were other streets and highways named after him in other cities that I wish I had counted them all. At one point on the trip, I recall seeing another sign for Martin Luther King Jr Blvd and I briefly could not remember what city or state I was driving through at the time.

Just what qualities did this man possess that made so many considered him great? Even if a person didn't believe in what he was preaching, there was no denying his great influence. Why? To get the answer I did not have to look far. Martin Luther King Jr himself knew the answer - just have a dream or a new direction and funnel all your energy to getting that dream. With a dream or a vision anyone can learn to be a leader.

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.( TE Lawrence, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom")

Everyone can learn to lead by discovering thepower that lies within each one of us. We can make a difference by being prepared when the call to lead comes. Becoming a leader starts with acknowledging and learning about five qualities we all possess to some extent. Once we take a deep inventory about ourselves and get to know ourselves, the key is practicing and growing these five qualities.

The customer has gone out the door; he has just placed a large forward order for delivery next march. Can you be sure that he will get what he expects? Is your internal communication up to scratch? This article gives you some tips. Your company is only as strong as its weakest link - but it is up to you to check the strength of them all regularly!

Are you a team? Is your company an entity that operates smoothly, with everyone pulling in the same direction?

The most important thing is consistency. Does everyone understand your company vision? Who knows what the mission statement is. Do you have a computer usage policy, regarding what employees may or may not use the computer for?

Whether you are a one man band, outsourcing a lot of your services or a large company, it is vital to have procedures in place.

Let's take the small guy. He has an accountant, who does his returns. Is there a process in place to ensure that all invoices get sent out, all expenses properly accounted for, mileage and per diems claimed? Well there must be, so that the owner can effectively tell his accountant what he is doing financially in his business.

Check the following and see how you rack up;

Be consistent in what you say to all employees, across all channels of communication.

Make it easy for employees to contact you, without fear.

Respond to all contacts in a professional and timely fashion.

Track all communications, and ensure appropriate processes are in place to ensure appropriate action is undertaken in all instances.

Try not to allow fiefdoms to build up, and try to ensure that at least one other employee knows what they are doing, in case of accident, sickness or leaving.

Constantly check how you're doing and is everything working, by asking your employees for feedback.

In order to communicate consistently with people outside the company, you first must learn to communicate effectively inside your company. You may want to check if everyone understands your company's vision and mission.

Have a company cook book, which makes it easy for new employees understand your processes and procedures. For that matter it would be no harm for existing employees including yourself to read it and have it handy.

Just make sure that everyone, who will be involved with that forward order we discussed, is going to ensure that the order will be correctly shipped to your happy punter!

Your company is only as strong as its weakest link - but it is up to you to check the strength of them all regularly!

About The Author:This article was written by Peter Lawless, founder of http://www.3r.ie/ For previous articles like this, visit 3R's Articles. Alternatively, subscribe to Success our free monthly Information Bulletin with sales and marketing articles.

If everyone would like to work in a thriving, enlivening and nurturing environment, why is it that almost no one loves being at work? Why is it that so many people simply acquiesce when confronted by the drudgery and suffering that, according to seemingly every statistical measure, characterizes life within most companies. Why is it that given the possibility of real fulfillment and satisfaction, we tolerate the gossip, petty jealousy, personal undermining and adversarial communication that seem to pervade many offices, assured of the inevitability of this condition?

Is this condition inevitable? Are we destined to work in an environment where the most we have to look forward to is Friday afternoon? Not at all. There are specific steps that can be taken to begin to reclaim some of the enthusiasm, some of the air of celebration and some of the fundamental respect for individual human dignity that is apparent within flourishing business organizations or on championship teams:

1. Don't take it personally

Given the dysfunctional communication strategies demonstrated by most adults, repressed anger and upset are frequently brewing just beneath the surface within many individuals. Their angry and offensive outbursts have little or nothing to do with any occurrence in the present moment. Some unresolved upset from the past has simply been triggered and bursts forth in an inappropriate manner.

Under such circumstances does it make sense to take another's outburst personally? Logically, the answer is no. Taking someone else's anger personally is insane because it simply never is a personal phenomenon. This is not to say, however, that it is easy to remain calm in the face of another persons' anger, recognizing that it is not personal. It is never easy, but armed with this insight you can begin to develop an ability to stand firmly in the face of another's upset without taking it as a personal attack.

2. Listen with compassion

Life is a difficult and challenging enterprise for everyone, and this fundamental truth goes largely unrecognized. Given this knowledge, rather than reacting to someone's anger or upset, it is possible for you to deeply appreciate his or her feelings and experience. Rather than reacting to someone's anger or upset, it is useful and necessary for you to demonstrate empathy. Remember, there but for the grace of God go I.

3. Just hear the communication

In order to lessen tension within the workplace, it is necessary to provide a safe environment for open, honest communication. Get people to talk about what is going on with them, to describe their present experience, and then just listen. Don't respond. Don't offer advice. Don't try to console. Just listen with compassion and understanding. In the vast number of cases, quiet and attentive listening will allow the upset to disappear.

4. Give up the need to be right

For most human beings, the necessity to be right, the unconscious desire to win is all important. This drive is expressed with employees, coworkers and even with family. Individuals are reduced to objects, and friends and family are sacrificed simply to preserve an egocentric point of view. We would rather be right, would rather win the argument than coexist happily, but being right and being happy are mutually exclusive.

5. Look for the best in people

Attention on oneself caused by one's own sense of insufficiency drives people into competition with one another and creates a bias toward critical, negative analysis of another in order to enhance one's own social standing and appearance. We literally look for the worst in others in an attempt to conceal or dilute our own self-perceived shortcomings by comparison.

In order to counter this seemingly natural tendency, learn to look for and expect the best in all coworkers and become everyone else's greatest fan. What is it about each individual that makes him or her a valuable contribution to the company? Who are these people really, and what are their best attributes and strengths?

6. Acknowledge people

Everyone craves positive attention, for most individuals live with a sense of insufficiency and of their own shortcomings. Look for opportunities to acknowledge coworkers. What positive impact are they making on the company? Acknowledge people for doing a good job, for making a deadline, for keeping their promises. Acknowledge them for their appearance, for the way they manage their workload, or for the way they treat others. Always remember to keep it authentic and sincere, and look for and find numerous opportunities to thank people for the many large and small contributions that they make to the company.

7. Forgive others

Given the unconscious desire to win at all costs and the necessity to be right, we tend to hold on to every injustice, every wrong, every resentment and every regret. What often goes unnoticed is that un-forgiven resentments must always be suppressed, managed or controlled. They arise again and again whenever the person who is the object of the resentment comes into the room or is mentioned in conversation. What makes matters worse is that the suppressed anger also arises whenever any similar instance resembles a past transgression. Resentments divert attention, breed gossip and provoke physical illness.

For your own sanity, it is critically important to forgive others. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself and to another. Forgiveness does not deny the inappropriate nature of another's acts; it does not condone or tolerate future abuse, but in forgiveness, in giving up the resentment and the desire to punish, you are left with serenity, freedom and peace of mind.

8. Communicate upsets

Human beings live in the illusion that unexpressed anger, upset and disappointment will simply disappear over time. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like resentments, unexpressed upsets inevitably arise again and again. They divert your attention and sap energy. Moreover, unfulfilled expectations, thwarted intentions and undelivered communications - the stuff of which upsets are made - provide the evidence by which other individuals are tried and sentenced. Only communication can provide salvation for continued viable and productive relationships.

About The Author:Scott Hunter helps executives create relationships in the workplace that improve teamwork and profitability. He is the author of the ground-breaking book, Making Work Work. Sign up for his FREE eCourse: The Art of Creating Extraordinary Organizations at http://www.thpalliance.com/CEOeCourse

One of the most important reasons to encourage regular gatherings with your team is to provide you with the opportunity to recognize individuals for their accomplishments  large and small. Each of us has a need to be recognized for our efforts. Team meetings and trainings give you the perfect venue to do that. Just as a coaching call from you can have a positive effect on a Consultant, recognition in front of a group of peers can also have an immeasurable impact on the attitude and performance of your Consultants.

Constantly look for ways to recognize and praise your team members and you will experience first hand, the magic of recognition!

Inspiring Ideas:Following are just a few ways you can recognize and praise your team members for a job well done.

· Send a note: A hand-written note of congratulations for a great show, sponsoring a new Consultant, or a personal triumph sends a message of your belief in your Consultant. Keep a supply of note cards and postcards on hand and in your purse. When you are waiting for an appointment or have a few minutes, write a note to a team member who deserves recognition or needs encouragement. Also keep a supply of get-well cards, birthday cards, congratulatory, and everyday cards on hand. Kind thoughts and words are always appreciated.

· Make a call: There is nothing like the thrill of receiving a brief and upbeat call from your up line to say what a wonderful job you have done.

· Say it with flowers: When a Consultant takes a big step toward her goals, show your appreciation with flowers. Whether they are silk, from your garden, or the local florist, there is nothing like receiving the gift of flowers.

· Send an E-Note: Technology now affords you the opportunity to reach out and touch someone with the click of a mouse. Go to one of the many on-line greeting card sites to send a note of thanks or congratulations.

· Put them in the spotlight: When your Consultant does something wonderful, has a great idea, or overcomes a challenge, let the Corporate Office know about their accomplishment. Your Consultant will be thrilled to see her name or idea featured in a company monthly publication, at a team meeting, or in your team newsletter.

Everyone deserves a pat on the back for the big and small achievements. As a leader you have the opportunity to affect many lives for the better. As Mary Kay Ash once said, "We treat our people like royalty. If you honor and serve the people who work for you, they will honor and serve you."

About The Author:Jane Deuber is a Co-Founder of http://www.DSWA.org (the only association dedicated to the needs of the independent party plan and network marketing professionals). Discover what makes the DSWA so unique. Listen to three motivating and informative free teleseminars by visiting http://www.mydswa.org/tele_class.asp

Meetings have become an inevitable part of doing business for almost every department owner. There are meetings with clients, meetings with employees and meetings with peers or associates. Almost everyone has suffered through too many meetings that take up too much time and accomplish too little. In fact, you may find that you yourself have now become numb to the fact that your meetings aren't as good as they could be. And everywhere you look, it seems as if somebody has another idea about how to fix your meetings, and make them more focused, more productive, and  dare I say it? More fun! So what can you do about it? Relax and keep reading, because you're about to find the information that can help you maintain the status quo  a list of tips and ideas for meeting planning  the wrong way!

1. Schedule your meetings at bad times - (for example, how about setting up a "must attend" meeting late on Friday afternoon?).

2. Make sure your meetings all start late and run overtime - (and whenever possible, scheduling meetings when someone is up against a deadline, or on a tight schedule).

3. Maintain a consistent lack of focus on what topics will be covered  (don't use an agenda).

4. Ensure there is a poor level of rapport in the group  (people don't talk to each other, or they complain, or engage in other unsuitable behaviour).

5. Don't arrive at a decision - (find new ways to keep covering the same ground, or continue asking for input rather than creating a plan of action.)

6. Choose a poor location and environment for your meetings - (for example, trying to fit 15 people into a closet-sized room that doesn't have windows or a proper ventilation system.)

7. Schedule meetings to go over routine topics - (instead of sending a memo or email.)

9. Never asking for feedback from participants, or allowing others to present ideas or get involved.

There you have it! Just follow those nine simple tips, and you're guaranteed to instil fear, loathing and boredom into even the most intrepid of meeting participants! You will be known as the manager who knows how NOT to manage meetings.

Andrew Rondeau is a leading Management & Leadership Strategist and offers Management/Leadership Mentoring and Coaching Services.

About The Author:Andrew Rondeau is a leading Management strategist. He is the author of the ground breaking management e-Books 'Accelerate Your Management Effectiveness', 'How To Get A Standing Ovation Every Time You Publicly Present' and 'Learn The Secrets Of Time Management'. http://www.andrewrondeau.co.uk

How many times have you encountered people in business and the image of the business or the person is so poorly presented it causes you to have a poor opinion of the services offered? It makes no difference if you are the owner or the employee; pride in yourself is evident in your daily dealings with people. Image is very important in business.

Here are some of my suggestions for success:

1. Dress for success. No matter what profession you are in, everyone has a dress code. For a financial advisor it is a suit, for a landscaper it could be a logoed t-shirt with appropriate length shorts or pants, for a theme-park employee it is the usually a polo-shirt and khaki shorts or pants; most everyone has a dress code and it is up to you to portray your profession correctly.

2. Communicate effectively. As business owners and professionals it is part of our job to meet and greet people on a daily basis. When doing this you are also presenting your company. Speak clearly and effectively when meeting with people. Practice what needs to be communicated so your potential customers are aware of your company's offerings and services.

3. Professional grooming. Do you ever wonder why some businesses have dress codes? Your attire and grooming affect all business endeavors positive or negative. It also reflects the pride you have in yourself. Clean and neat go along way when meeting with people. Put your best foot forward, this might be your next customer.

4. Storefront cleanliness. If you own a business with an office or retail storefront, the image the store has reflects on you and your business. If people are turned off by unsightly messes, dirty floors, disorganized overstocked shelves, do you think they will come back or recommend people to your store?

5. Know your business. Some people buy businesses or work for businesses they have no idea what they represent. For instance, an owner of an ice cream store normally has a high turnover of young employees. Have an education class for your new employees. Do not have people presenting your product with no product knowledge or customer service skills. If you are a professional, take a course in what you are offering. Perhaps your profession is salestake a sales training course. There are courses and educational seminars offered frequently in various fields.

6. Continuing education. Strive to increase your knowledge by taking continuing education courses, read books, subscribe to newsletters with articles of benefit, take online courses; the sources for education are many but to be successful you need to keep learning. Your value to your business or to your employer grows with the knowledge you have to offer.

About The Author:Carole DeJarnatt is the President of Alliance Advisors, Inc., a business advisory and coaching service for development and implementation of strategies for greater success in the future. Visit the company website at http://www.AllianceAdvisorsInc.com.

Your thoughts have a powerful effect on you. They affect your attitude, your physiology, and your motivation to act. Your negative thoughts actually control your behavior. They can make you stutter, spill things, forget your lines or breathe shallowly.

Research indicates that the average person talks to himself or herself about 50,000 times a day. According to psychological researchers, it is 80% negative; things such as shouldn't have said that .... They don't like me... I don't like the way my hair looks today I can't dance I'll never be a good skater ,I'm not a speaker I'll never lose this weight I can't ever seem to get organized I'm always late.

We also know from lie-detector tests that your body reacts to your thoughts. These physiological changes, such as heart rate and breathing rate, occur when you're lying but also in reaction to every thought you think. Every cell in your body is affected by every thought you have.

Negative thoughts affects your body negatively, weakening you. Positive thoughts affect your body in a positive way, making you more relaxed, centered and alert. It is your job to control and master your thoughts. You are 100% responsible.

But there is a core principle you need to understand about self-criticism and self-judgment: It is always motivated by love andhas always some positive intention or positive goal attached to it. Now, this positive intention doesn't show immediately. It needs some reflection at first. But with some practice, like everything else, it comes within seconds and here comes the change.

Here are four steps you will need to take to master your thoughts and to transform your inner critic into an inner coach.

1. It's Time to Step Back

The first step of any strategy to change your emotions or personal history is to step back and reflect on what is going on inside of you. It is as if you were stepping back from your thinking and were looking at it. By doing this you go to a higher psychological level where change can take place. As Albert Einstein said,"The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."

2. Look for the positive intention.

One of the most magnificent beauties of the human mind is self-reflexivity. This means that you not only think about an event, but you think about what you just thought about that specific event. It's like layers of thoughts that are formed at the back of your mind in a fraction of a second. Now, you can peel away the layers and discover the positive intention of that negative thought by asking yourself the following question: "What is the good or the positive intention of that part of me that just thought " or "What does that part of me that just thought wants that is good for me". Were you able to find it?

3. Feel how your emotions are changing.

When you find that positive intention, you discover a whole new part of you. The part that wants you to be better, to feel better and to be everything you're capable of. That way, your self-esteem increases, you have more confidence in yourself, you trust yourself more and you achieve more.

4. Thank yourself for caring about you.

Now, you're going to play the appreciation game and that is to thank yourself for the beautiful human being you are. Because you understand your unique value, your importance in the world, you can more quickly and more easily go for your dreams and live a more prosperous life.

Negative thoughts happen to everybody. The difference between a successful person and another is just that he or she has learned how to master his thoughts and emotions. With these four little but powerful steps, you can beat your negative thoughts and therefore your negative emotions. You will radiate more energy to accomplish your goals and you will function more efficiently.

About The Author:Get our special "5 TOP secrets" mini-course f*ree in your inbox! Here's How You Can Quickly and Easily Get A Winning Mindset Guaranteed To Achieve Massive Success, in Just 2 to 4 Hours! Check out at http://www.vision-to-action.com

My mentor always told me he would rather people were either hot or cold toward him, not lukewarm. You cannot do much with lukewarm response, but you can use challenge and opposition to advantage.

Some weeks the same topic keeps coming up in a number of different coaching sessions. Last week it was leaders learning, sometimes the hard way, how to meet opposition from a colleague.

The key word here is "meet." Most people get into trouble by failing to meet what the person is actually bringing to them. Instead they avoid the person's energy by trying to pacify, correct or fix it. Often that just makes things worse. What works for me is to recognize the emotion the person is experiencing, see where the challenge is coming from, and meet them there.

Most of us are hesitant to meet people with a strong pushback. Understandably so; as leaders or experts, we are careful with the power differential derived from our position and, if the person is coming from pain, low esteem or self-protection, coming on strong clearly doesn't help. There are different ways to meet each of those three types creatively, which we may touch on in future postings. The coaching in these recent sessions, however, was about meeting people who were bringing their challenge in a feisty, aggressive way.

It is easy enough to recognize when opposition is coming from this kind of energy. The language will be clean and direct, not veiled or pained. You will probably feel some feistiness rising in yourself. Under the issue the person is bringing, you will often notice it is really about them finding their place. They want to play, to contribute more in some way, and they're looking for a way in.

Typically such people got told along the way that they don't really matter. They are used to being dismissed or overpowered and are wrestling this demon right now with the current authority figure in their life: you. What a golden opportunity. You can let them know, finally, how much they do matter. Avoiding their energy, even meeting it with all the gentle kindness of a saint, won't give them that. You have to be willing to fight a little, to engage but in a way that leaves them getting a win, so they end up honored for the truth they are seeking to bring and feel they have a place to give their gift.

The more willing we are to meet opposition, the more we will find ourselves surrounded by strong people engaging in a genuinely loyal and creative way.

About The Author:Formerly CEO of a major real estate and contruction group, David Lesser has been guiding people and organizations through crucial transitions for over 20 years. Go to http://ExecutiveConfidant.com. Join David's blog or arrange for a free 30 minute consultation.

Success in any creative endeavor depends on trust. If your colleagues trust you, they will give in ways they didn't know were possible. If banks and investors trust you, they will finance your projects. In deep personal work, if a client trusts you, he or she will see and release life-long patterns that have held them bound. Without trust nothing much will move.

Many of the people I have coached feel nervous around earning the trust they need from others. We all seem to start out imagining that we have to get everything right in order to be trusted. In fact the reverse is true. Several clients have found helpful the homework of admitting publicly, for a week or two, at least one mistake a day. It is never whether we make mistakes or not. It is what we do with the mistakes that makes the difference.

I have been doing board of directors work recently with three very different companies, which in their own ways have each come through a time of crisis. Such times are tough for executives and for boards. Suddenly blind spots come into view. "Oh my god, I never saw how doing that could bring us to this." We see how we were missing vital factors that seem so blatantly obvious now. Not only do we have to handle the shock at seeing what we had previously been blind to but also, at the same time, we find ourselves facing the array of interested parties wondering if they can still trust us.

It might be tempting to try to put our best face on it. Yet people can smell cover up a mile away. And no one trusts a blamer. When someone admits his or her mistake, however, it is their way of committing for themselves that it will be done differently from now on. They open a window on the change that has happened inside of them. When people are allowed to look through that window, usually they end up trusting more than they did before. Watching a leader in crisis will tell you a whole lot more about their character than witnessing their success.

In the early stages of a coaching engagement, clients usually find ways to test to see if they can trust me. Albeit indirectly, they are asking whether I am capable of hurting, betraying or abandoning them as may have happened before. I have never found it works to deny I could be that way and to proclaim myself as safe. When a person sees that I know the parts of myself that could cause hurt, they seem to relax.

People may admire your brilliance or your determination. They may like you for your friendliness. Only when they see that you are capable of the same mistakes they are and that you have the guts to do what it takes to set things right, will they actually trust you.

About The Author:Formerly CEO of a major real estate and contruction group, David Lesser has been guiding people and organizations through crucial transitions for over 20 years. Go to http://ExecutiveConfidant.com. Join David's blog or arrange for a free 30 minute consultation.

A good leader essentially needs to be a motivator. He should be able to consistently inspire his team to strive for quality and excellence in their work. The job of a leader is to constantly improve standards and levels of productivity. And the only way to achieve that is to motivate people to perform their best at all times. In order to create such an effective team of achievers, here are some important managerial skills that you need to develop:

1. Observe the work environment

A leader has umpteen demands made on his time and schedule. Its not surprising therefore that he is left with little time to observe the work environment. However, this aspect is so important that a good leader needs to schedule time for this in his calendar. He must make regular visits to the work environment and observe how it is functioning. Observation should include watching the employees at work, how they interact, and what procedures are being adopted and whether the work flow is smooth or not. Only after observing these aspects of the work environment, a leader can plan any adjustments that could improve productivity. Also, when a leader is seen around the workplace and seems aware of what's happening there, it will add to his credibility.

2. Monitor the performance of Employees

One of the key roles of a leadership position is to monitor the performance of subordinates. However, such monitoring must be acceptable and known to both parties. You need to clearly lay down the policies and procedures and the performance criteria. Meet and have conferences with your employees on a regular basis and not only in times of crisis. It is not just a matter of formality and doing paperwork that evaluations and assessments need to be undertaken. You must undertake individual and group conferences to monitor performance and also with and intent to facilitate the professional development of your team. On going goals need to be clearly communicated to both individuals and groups and you must provide constant encouragement throughout the process.

3. Implement Programs for Professional Development

Once the strengths and weaknesses of your team have been evaluated and identified, one of your key roles is to make strategies for employee training and development, bearing in mind the skill areas that need strengthening.

4. Possess Strong Expertise and Working Knowledge

Needless to say, you need to have strong expertise as well as experience in the processes and production in your area of work to be able to get the desired results. If you personally lack all the subject knowledge and expertise, then consult with the department heads regularly in order to ensure that you have an informed and accurate overall picture of what's happening.

5. Make Good Decisions

A good leader is known by the decisions he makes. You must consider all the relevant factors before decision making. Your decisions must be clear and firm. However, always be willing to adjust and adapt your decisions when required. Firmness combined with the required flexibility will inspire confidence in your leadership.

6. Conduct and Evaluate Research to plan for the future

A vital part of being a leader is to remain at the cutting edge in your field of business. In order to achieve this, you must have the ability to conduct on going reviews and research.

Of course, managing the present standards in performance and product quality is a large part of your job. But you must also plan and prepare for the future by conducting research to assess what's going on in the market. Be proactive and not reactive! These six management skills will help you establish a very strong foundation for leadership success.

People procrastinate because many are paralysed with fear of failure, loss, pain and some, success! What we fear becomes our reality.

Solution:

1. Fear is "False Evidence Appearing Real".

2. 90% of what we fear never becomes reality.

3. The best way to overcome fear is to do what we fear.

4. It helps if you visualise the worst-case scenario and accept it as a possibility and realise it will probably never come to pass.

5. Our imaginations exaggerate negative fears completely out of proportion and in most cases never occur!

Problem:

Few have a strategy to accomplish their goals.

Solution:

1. Make a contract with yourself.

2. Identify specific rewards for positive action.

3. Establish certain penalties for procrastination.

4. Break your goals down into small steps.

5. Schedule a time segment for each activity.

6. Give yourself rewards for correct action and penalties when you do not follow through.

Problem:

Many have a lack of discipline. It takes 30 days to break old habits and establish new ones.

Solution:

1. Create a Success-Habits-Reminder card to record your daily activities.

2. Tape it to your bathroom mirror.

3. Stick it on your desk to keep track of your actions.

Problem:

Most people do not have a plan or assign priorities.

Solution:

1. Create a "To Do" List.

2. Determine immediate, intermediate and long-range goals.

3. Plan the goals that are in immediate reach of your abilities and assign priorities: Important & urgent, Important but not urgent, Not urgent or important.

4. Do the urgent & important tasks first.

5. 80% of your activities are not important to your goals.

6. Only 20% are urgent & important.

7. Learn to eliminate the 80% activities that do not help you attain your goals.

Problem:

Many try to complete the most urgent & important activities at the last moment.

Solution:

Every day schedule a block of prime time to work on an important activity that is due in the future. Soon you will find the time to analyse and polish your projects many times before they come due.

Problem:

There never seems to be enough time to contemplate your decisions

Solution:

Schedule quiet time to make important decisions. Listen to relaxing music that balances both brain hemispheres. If you do not schedule time for exercise, rest and entertainment, you will spin out of control.

Problem:

You are overwhelmed.

Solution:

Learn to say, "No!" to activities and individuals that do not contribute to the attainment of your goals. Often, people take advantage of your kindness and generosity without ever realising you have better things to do with your time.

Few people use an organiser or daytime planner to coordinate their activities.

Solution:

1. Transfer the things on your master list to the correct dates in your organiser.

2. Check off each item as it is completed.

3. At the end of each day, reschedule the things that were not completed.

4. If an item is rescheduled twice, you are procrastinating.

5. Ask yourself, "What if I never do this?"

6. If the answer is, "No big deal!" Delete it.

Problem:

Some people suffer from perfection paralysis.

Solution:

1. Make the decision that you are not perfect and never will be. Everything you do will be imperfect in some way.

2. Realise that if it is worth doing, it's worth doing wrong until you get it right.

3. Stop judging yourself according to your accomplishments.

4. Learn to trust yourself by developing intuition and following your hunches. You will find your first premonition is usually the correct one.

5. Discover just how right you are by making predictions and observing how a high percentage of them are correct. (Predict the line at the supermarket or bank that will move the fastest and take action accordingly.)

6. Make quick decisions in 20 seconds or less.

7. Make your decisions the correct ones by believing in your choices and acting with confidence.

8. In difficult situations, flip a coin, choose heads or tails and then observe how you feel about the outcome of the toss. Your response to the coin toss will help you make the right decision.

A last word ..

Procrastination has to be learnt; we are not born with the trait of procrastination. That's means if you suffer from procrastination, you can unlearn it. Use the tips above to learn new positive habits.

About The Author:Andrew Rondeau offers a FREE e-Course that informs and educates on all aspects of Management and Leadership. He is the author of top selling management e-Books including 'Accelerate Your Management Effectiveness'. Article website - http://www.greatmanagement.org/http://www.andrewrondeau.co.uk/

Being a leader is not always pleasing. Some even think of it as a burden. Some end up being a failure in completing this challenging task.

But, what if you are in a situation where you have to lead a certain group, yet you don't know how to do it?

Then, you need to learn first.

Below are some characters a leader must have:

 Confident

You need to be a very confident person. No fear, no doubt. By being confident, you can draw out the trust and best efforts of the team to complete the task well. You can also be a good inspiration for the team members.

 Communicative

You must be able to communicate your goals and enthusiasm. That way, your team member would understand more about the mission and their responsibilities. If possible, explain in details to avoid unnecessary mistakes while your team is performing the task.

 Anticipative

A good leader is someone who can anticipate all possibilities. Yes, you must be able to anticipate both opportunities and problems related to your missions. Prepare plan A, B, or C to avoid getting stuck.

 Enthusiastic

How the team would end up being if you are a dispassionate person? You should be the one who motivate the whole team. That is why it is necessary to be enthusiastic.

 Analytic

Being a leader you must be able to manage the team. You need to know how to put the right person on the right position. You also need to know how to guide the team in completing the tasks the best way possible.

 Self-Controlled

No panic. A leader cannot be panicked over any circumstances. Think of any crises as part of the ride. You need to know how to control yourself and of course the rest of the team members.

Take some time to absorb all these important quality and be a great leader.

There are lots of ways to lead. The best way is to try to lead in a way that takes advantage of your natural personality. In other words, don't be what you ain't. Learning how others behave, how they think, what they focus on and find important, however, will make you a better leader. Let's face it, most of us are self-centered and really don't care how others think or behave as long as they don't get in our way. To be a better leader, though, it is important to understand and be able to work with the differing behavioral patterns of others; those with whom you must interact to get your outcomes achieved. Partner up with individuals who continuously see the world differently than you do. Have some discussions over coffee. Try to find value in their points of view. Some of the best discussion groups are comprised of people with opposing views who learn to understand value and respect the opinions of others.

Leaders lead differently based upon their different personalities. It is important that you find out which leadership personality is most suited to your situation. One, hopefully, that will align with your natural personality. If you are seen as changing your personality often, however, people won't know how to relate to you as a leader and won't trust you.

There are a number of ways of describing typical personalities. One of the most common divides people into more or less assertive and either task or people oriented. This model, like so many others, breaks the complexity of personalities down into four types of people: Controlling (assertive/task oriented), Promoting (assertive/people oriented), Supporting (non-assertive/people oriented), and Analytical (non-assertive/task oriented).

 The Controlling personality's strength lies in its ability to stay focused on outcomes. Controllers are goal driven, action oriented, and tend not to wander too much outside the current time frame.

 Promoting personalities tend to be more futuristic, big picture types. Promoters are quite creative and intuitive, but bore easily.

 Supportive personalities are the best overall communicators. Supporters are usually thinking about "how am I going to get the message to others...include others...and make them feel happy.

 Analytical personalities are into detail and history. Analytical tend to be oriented towards the past, not the future, and want lots of explanations for why things are done the way they are.

While most everyone has the minimum amount of flexibility required to move gingerly between these types, most people feel the most comfortable fulfilling roles that take advantage of their natural personality strengths. For example, if I had a project to complete on time, I'd want the Controller to be in charge of the time frame. Making sure people were aware of deadlines, keeping people on task and focused. I'd want the Analytical to be assigned the responsibility of auditing the project to make sure that nothing is left out or forgotten and that the policies and procedures that are in place are adhered. This takes advantage of their natural detailing strengths. The Supporter would be in charge of internal and external communication since they have a need to be inclusive of everyone and make sure that everyone feels happy. The Promoter would be in charge of the creative aspects of the project. Brainstorming, new product ideas, negotiations, deal-making are all part of their natural repertoire.

The skills of versatility, the ability to deal with people based upon their personalities, is the single greatest differentiator between good and great leaders. It is a skill that allows the leader to see the best in everyone and assign roles that fulfill not only the needs of the organization, but also the needs of the individua

About The Author:A world class speaker, author, and educator, Dr. Robbins focuses on transformational leadership by providing leadership skill training, team building / team leadership training, management development training, and executive coaching. See more on http://www.harveyrobbins.com.

There are quite a few methods currently in use to get teams to work better. All the way from outdoor experiences like ropes courses and climbing mountains to the classroom and on the job experiences. Some, obviously, work better than others for your situation.

While many of these methods are enjoyable, they may not lead to better team performance over time. How many of you have gone out into the wild to "team" only to come back to the office and still not trust each other or have fuzzy goals or run across unexpected political barriers.

No matter what the method, you will have difficulty achieving successful team outcomes unless you turn on the eight engines of effective teamwork. Over the past 26 years of practice and research, the following eight engines have surfaced as consistently powering effective team performance:

 Defining goals/objectives/success Sorting out roles/responsibilities/accountabilities Identifying barriers to success and developing contingency plans Improving interpersonal relationships between team members Feedback systems Team member recruitment and departure Team leadership Intra- and inter-team communication

There is, however, a significant difference between how ordinary teams and high performing teams run these engines.

Ordinary teams list out all their goals and objectives and prioritize the entire list. I've seen some teams with lists of objectives as long as my sleeve. The best teams limit their goals to only a few. Those that need to be accomplished within a short period, say 30 days. These few near-term goals are then prioritized. As time passes, some longer-term goals move into the shorter time frame and are included into a newly re-prioritized list. What exceptional teams do, is identify those goals that seem to consistently drop to the bottom of the priority list. Then they get rid of them; delegate them upwards, outwards (outsourcing) or eliminate them totally since they will never have the time to get to them. This process seems to relieve a lot of guilt associated with not getting those things done that you know you'll never have time to do. In essence, then, high performing teams only work on short-term continuously high priority goals.

Ordinary teams divide up their roles and responsibilities as best they can. While exceptional teams take little for chance. The best teams identify the gaps and overlaps in roles so that people don't fight over their responsibilities (turf wars) and important (but often dull) tasks (hot potatoes) don't get left undone.

Exceptional teams go on to identify three types of barriers that have potential to upset the apple cart. People barriers, process barriers, and structure barriers. People barriers show up when someone doesn't get along with others and is seen as an impediment to progress. Most team jerks fall into this category. If fact, there are very few real jerks; they just may have a toxic relationship with someone else on the team. Process barriers are policies and practices that have outlived their usefulness but remain in place anyhow. Most effective teams either ignore these policy barriers or have them redone. One place to look to improving these outdated policies is to change the date at the bottom of each policy page to an "expiration date" instead of an "effective date" or "revision date." Structural barriers are created by a mismatch between how the team is structured (hierarchical vs. self-directed) and the skill level of the team members. For example, knowledge workers work best in a hierarchical structure.

The most effective teams tend to help each of their members understand their own personalities as well as those of the other team members. This knowledge not only goes a long way in helping the team build bridges across toxic relationships (versatility), but also helps assign roles that take advantage of the natural strengths of one's personality.

Exceptional teams tend to make sure the infrastructure supporting their team efforts is continuously maintained. They make sure, for example, that there is an informal continuous feedback loop between all team members/leader. They make sure every team member is operating from the same page in terms of agreed upon decision-making methods. They make sure that they are continuously looking for ways to improve communication within and between teams. They divide their team members up into "core" and "resource" to take advantage of time commitments and needed skills. And they look at varying their leadership models depending on the changing needs of the team.

Moving from ordinary to a high performing really depends upon your commitment to run your team using the eight engines of effective teamwork.

About The Author:A world class speaker, author, and educator, Dr. Robbins focuses on transformational leadership by providing leadership skill training, team building / team leadership training, management development training, and executive coaching. See more on http://www.harveyrobbins.com